Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My LifeHarper Collins, 2007 M07 5 - 288 pages In 2004, James Blake's life was getting more perfect by the day. A rising tennis star, with each passing year his game seemed to improve. In 2002, he was named Sexiest Male Athlete by People, and along the way he continued to gain in the rankings and earn respect on the court. Each day seemed to offer a new milestone, a new achievement; he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of the ride. But that life came to an abrupt halt in May 2004 when Blake broke his back in a freak accident on the court. A few months later, as Blake was recovering from his injury, he suffered another tremendous setback when his father–the man who had raised him and provided the inspiration for his tennis career–lost his battle with stomach cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Blake's situation was further complicated when he contracted Zoster, a rare virus that paralyzed half of his face and threatened to end his already jeopardized tennis career. Breaking Back tells the story of the tumultous year that followed these three devastating events, detailing how Blake persevered through hardship to become one of the best tennis players in the world. Here Blake explains how the wisdom and words that his father imparted to him over the years gave him the ability to succeed in the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds. Though these trials proved the most difficult of his life, ultimately this trifecta of tragedy became the culmination of all his father's lessons, showing Blake that even in death, his father was still teaching him how to be a man. In the spirit of Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking comes this remarkable tale of strength and determination from one of tennis's biggest stars. A story of passion, willpower, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and a son, Breaking Back is one athlete's account of finding hope in the bleakest of times. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 5
... gang's designated wise guy; Matt Daly, another old friend, his camouflage baseball cap turned backward, as it always is; J. P. Johnson; Andy Jorgensen; and my brother, Thomas, who often crashes at the house when he's Prologue.
How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life James Blake. brother, Thomas, who often crashes at the house when he's in town. The scene was typical of that summer, and even though it was a “school night,” poker chips and good-natured taunts ...
... Thomas Jr. When I was a junior player, another kid told me he felt sorry for me because of my genealogy, predicting that I'd be hated by blacks and whites. I told my mother about what he said, and she replied that she didn't see why I ...
... Thomas and I excelled at it as well, with each of us opting to play for the local high school in Fairfield, Connecticut. But tennis, like every other sport that we played growing up, was just a part of our lives, not the thing that ...
... Thomas aside and shared some potentially grim news with us: our father had stayed behind, in part, because he said he had to have a routine hernia operation. But my mother hadn't been able to reach him by phone or e-mail in several days ...
Contents
It Could Be Worse | 35 |
Requiem for a Superman | 63 |
Five Minutes of Hitting | 115 |
Plan B | 147 |
If You Can Win One Set | 175 |
Fire It Up One Time Bam | 203 |
Getting Better | 241 |